São Paulo Dance Company 2013 season

After touring Europe, the São Paulo state dance company returns to the paulistano stage with a new programme.

Dancers performing 'Peekaboo' (Marcela Benvegnu/Press Image)

It’s not everyday that paulistanos get behind government initiatives with great enthusiasm. But the São Paulo Companhia de Dança (São Paulo Dance Company – SPCD) is a wonderful exception. The company's performances, which are already rated among the very best in Latin America, rarely cost more than R$20 per head. But beyond the affordable ticket prices, the company’s accomplishments in its only five years of existence are stellar, with 300 shows in 45 Brazilian cities and in four other countries already under its belt.

After spending two months in Germany and Austria, the company's 2013 schedule on the São Paulo stage features 14 dances in total, including five premieres. One of the never-before-seen performances, Peekaboo (13-16 June), comes from the Nederlands Dans Theater's resident choreographer, the German Marco Goecke; this isn’t the first contact he's had with SPCD, as he also created Supernova (20-23 June), which has already been incorporated into the company’s repertoire.

This season also includes choreography from the Italian Giovanni de Palma, who recreates the classic Romeo and Juliet(21-24, 28-30 November, 1 December), the first narrative production by SPCD. De Palma, who has danced with the Ballet de L'Opera of Nice, France, and the Dresden Ballet in Germany, specialises in reworking classics for companies worldwide.

But national efforts are also among the programme highlights, including three performances – Azougue, Por Menores and Mamihlapinatapai – created through the Ateliê de Coreógrafos Brasileiros, an initiative to incentivise Brazilian choreographers. The trio will be performed alongside a piece by choreographer Ana Vitória Freire (5-8 December).

Dance aficionados will be able to judge the quality of the company’s work for themselves, but if recent critical reviews are anything to go by, SPCD is doing very well indeed.